Wednesday, May 30, 2018

May 30, 2018
(The Gardian) A Russian journalist who was reported to have been shot dead in
Kiev has turned up alive at a news conference in Ukraine.Arkady Babchenko
emerged at a police press conference on Wednesday afternoon in front of
journalists who had been expecting updates on the investigation into his
murder. Vasily Gritsak, the head of the Ukrainian security service, told
reporters the agency had faked Babchenko’s death to catch people who were
trying to kill him. On Tuesday, Ukrainian police had said Babchenko, a Kremlin
critic and veteran Russian war correspondent, was shot three times in the back
as he left his apartment to buy bread. A government official told the media
that Babchenko, 41, died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

But on
Wednesday, officials said Babchenko had staged his death in coordination with
Ukrainian police as part of an investigation into threats made against his
life. The plan had been in place for more than a month, they said. Police said
they had made one arrest in connection with the operation. Speaking to
journalists, Babchenko apologised, saying: “I have been forced to bury my
friends and colleagues many times and I know the sickening feeling.” Apparently
he had not even told his closest family members about the plan. “Special
apologies to my wife, Olechka – there was no other option,” Babchenko said to a
room of visibly stunned journalists. “The operation was under preparation for
two months.”

It was not
immediately clear how Babchenko faking his death led to the apprehension of the
suspect. The general prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who appeared alongside
Babchenko, said it had been necessary to fake the journalist’s death so the
organisers of the plot to kill him would believe they had succeeded. According
to Gritsak, Russian authorities had recruited a former fighter in east Ukraine
by offering him $30,000 (£23,000) for the killing. Wearing a black hoodie and
shuffling slightly as he spoke, Babchenko concluded: “I’ve done my work. I’m
still alive for the moment.” Friends had begun planning vigils and fundraising
for Babchenko’s adopted children before he emerged alive with a sheepish grin
on Wednesday. Fellow reporters had begun investigating his death independently
of the government.

A journalist
asked about the inquiry into the murder of Pavel Sheremet, an investigative
journalist killed in a car bombing in 2016. Journalists have accused Ukraine’s
SBU intelligence service of stymieing the investigation. “Please, we have a
different topic today,” the government official responded. The Russian foreign
ministry said on Wednesday it was happy Babchenko had turned out to be alive,
but said Ukraine had used his story as propaganda. Maria Zakharova, the foreign
ministry spokeswoman, said the story was imbued with “propagandistic effect”. Other
Russian officials denounced the staged murder. “It’s a hoax, as well as a
provocation, with accusations against Russia of a feigned murder,” Alexey
Pushkov, a prominent Russian lawmaker, wrote on Twitter. A number of observers
expressed reservations about the extreme measures taken by Ukrainian officials,
and whether they could endanger journalists or hinder investigations in the
future. Mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the Institute of International
Relations Prague, wrote online: “Next time there’s some killing, Russia will be
able to play the ‘do you know this is real?’ card.”

Some
journalists also asked whether police would be required in future to produce a
body. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which had earlier called for an
investigation into the killing, demanded on Wednesday that the Ukrainian
government explain why it needed to stage Babchenko’s murder. “We are relieved
that Arkady Babchenko is alive. Ukrainian authorities must disclose what
necessitated the extreme measure of staging news of the Russian journalist’s
murder,” the organisation wrote in a statement. Babchenko fled Russia in 2017
after receiving threats at home for saying he did not mourn the victims of a
Russian military plane crash. He served in the Russian army during the two wars
in Chechnya in the 1990s and became one of Russia’s best-known war reporters. The
murders of a number of journalists and other dissidents in recent years in Kiev
remain unsolved.